Based on case studies in the literature women appear to be more susceptible to biomechanical type wrist injuries than are men. It is proposed that biomechanical modeling and field studies of workers are needed to better determine the degree of increased risk to women in jobs requiring hand exertions, as well as identify some of the job parameters that lead to such wrist disorders as appear to be reported in manual materials handling operations. Also, better diagnostic procedures may be developed from such an investigation. The objective of the proposed study is to investigate the influence of intra-wrist forces as factors in the etiology of tenosynovitis and carpal tunnel syndrome. It is proposed that an existing two dimensional biomechanical hand-wrist model be extended to include additional wrist tendons and supporting structures, and that it be used to identify high intra-wrist forces in three dimensions for various hand postures and finger loading conditions. As such the refined model would be used to identify hand-wrist work postures which produce such high intra-wrist forces, and to identify anthropometric attributes and differences in work methods in a group of industrial workers who have and have not sustained such chronic wrist injuries in the recent past.